Subject: South Asia Daily: NATO Approves Training Mission in Afghanistan; U.N. Pressures Pak on Nuclear Weapons; India Seeks Death Penalty for Hijackers
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Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2014 08:42:57 -0500 (EST)

NATO Approves Training Mission in Afghanistan; U.N. Pressures Pak on Nuclear Weapons; India Seeks Death Penalty for Hijackers

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NATO Approves Training Mission in Afghanistan; U.N. Pressures Pak on Nuclear Weapons; India Seeks Death Penalty for Hijackers

NATO Approves Training Mission in Afghanistan; U.N. Pressures Pak on Nuclear Weapons; India Seeks Death Penalty for Hijackers

 <p>  <i>&nbsp;</i><b style="font-size: 1.135em; line-height: 1.7em">Afghanistan</b>  </p><br><p>  <i>NATO approves U.S.-led  training mission in Afghanistan</i>  </p><br><p>  On Tuesday, NATO foreign ministers agreed to launch a new  training mission in Afghanistan beginning Jan. 1, 2015 (<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8AXsPo-rO9Fsl7A7495 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">Reuters</a>,  <a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRE4A110f style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">Pajhwok</a>).  Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the new mission, named Resolute  Support, will replace the combat troops who are set to pull out by the end of  this year with troops to train and assist Afghan security forces. Under the  NATO plan, a contingent of 12,000 foreign troops, mostly from the United States  due to delays in contributions from other NATO countries, will remain in  Afghanistan. "Afghanistan's future is now in the hands of Afghans," Stoltenberg  told the NATO foreign ministers.   </p><br><p>  <i>Afghanistan, Pakistan,  India improve rank in Corruption Perceptions Index</i>  </p><br><p>  Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India all improved their ranking  in Transparency International's <a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRE6A871b style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">Corruption Perceptions Index</a>,  released on Wednesday. The report ranks countries based on a 100-point  "corruption perception" scale, with zero being a highly corrupt score and 100  being very clean. Afghanistan's score rose four points this year, improving  from 8 to 12 on the scale (<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRFHA2dfd style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">Pajhwok</a>).  Pakistan's score rose one point, from 28 in 2013 to 29 in this year's report (<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRFSAf532 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">Dawn</a>).  India improved by two points from 36 to  38 in 2014 (<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRFcA7435 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">Times  of India</a>, <a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRFfA3e90 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">IBNLive</a>,  <a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRFhA3d8a style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">Livemint</a>).  Turkey's score decreased the most -- falling five points this year -- and  Angola, China, Malawi, and Rwanda all decreased by four points (<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRFnA5de5 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">CNN</a>).  It is the first time in 18 years that India was ranked as less corrupt than  China. The United States scored 74, up one point from last year.   </p><br><p>  <b>Pakistan</b>  </p><br><p>  <i>U.N. urges Pakistan to  give up nuclear weapons</i>  </p><br><p>  A United Nations General Assembly resolution on working  towards a nuclear-weapon-free world on Wednesday that called on Pakistan,  India, and Israel to voluntarily give up their nuclear weapons was passed  overwhelmingly by the assembly (<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRFpA6b32 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">Dawn</a>,  <a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRFqAac18 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">ET</a>).  However, the United States joined India in voting against a key part of the  resolution that required the three countries to accede to the Non-Proliferation  Treaty as non-nuclear-weapon states. The resolution is not binding under the  U.N. Charter, but is symbolic in nature.   </p><br><p>  <i>Police register  blasphemy case against 'disco mullah'</i>  </p><br><p>  Pakistan police said on Wednesday that they were  investigating blasphemy allegations against Junaid Jamshed, a man formerly  dubbed the "disco mullah" (<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRFsAaa31 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">Reuters</a>).  Jamshed quit his career in pop music to become a preacher in the conservative  Tableeghi Jamaat organization. Mobeen Qadri, a member of the religious  political party Sunni Tehreek, brought the blasphemy case against Jamshed after  he used the example of one of the Prophet Muhammad's wives to illustrate an  argument about the failings of women in a video, which then went viral. Blasphemy  is punishable by death in Pakistan, but the law does not define what is  blasphemous and human rights groups say the law is mostly used against  minorities and the poor to settle personal disputes or seize property.   </p><br><p>  <i>--Emily Schneider</i>  </p><br><p>  <b>India</b>  </p><br><p>  <i>India to punish flight hijackers with death penalty</i>  </p><br><p>  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet approved  an anti-hijacking bill, which provides for ?stringent punishment, including the  death penalty, of hijackers of Indian airplanes, according to news reports on  Tuesday (<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRFwA9af2 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">Business  Standard</a>,<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRF0Ac347 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">  Hindustan Times</a>). The government said in a statement: "The (anti-hijacking)  Bill provides death punishment for the offence of hijacking, where such offence  results in the death of a hostage or of a security personnel; or with  imprisonment for life and the moveable and immoveable property of such persons  shall also be liable to be confiscated" (<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRF4Ac433 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">Livemint</a>).  </p><br><p>  The Anti-Hijacking Amendment Bill, 2010 was introduced in  response to the hijacking of Indian Airlines -- now known as Air India --  Flight IC-814 in 1999, when a flight from Kathmandu, Nepal to New Delhi was  seized by five Pakistani nationals. The flight, carrying 180 passengers and  crew, was forced to make a detour in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and the hostages  were let go after three militants were released from prisons in India.  </p><br><p>  <i>Bhopal gas leak victims demand justice</i>  Hundreds of people marched in the streets of Bhopal -- located in the central  state of Madhya Pradesh --? on Tuesday to commemorate the 30th anniversary of  the Bhopal gas tragedy and demand justice for the victims (<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRGDAb4e2 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">Reuters</a>,<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRGWA582d style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">  NDTV</a>,<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRGrAa7f2 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">  WSJ</a>,<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRG6A0248 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank"> BBC</a>). The  Indian Parliament also remembered the victims of the incident on Wednesday.  Sumitra Mahajan, the speaker of the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of  Parliament, said: "[The] House expresses its support and commitment to the  people affected by the gas leak" (<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmONWzSWRHNA9e15 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">Economic  Times</a>). Hamid Ansari, the chairman of the Rajya Sabha (upper house), said:  "It is incumbent on us to do our utmost to support the surviving victims in  every manner possible" (<a href="http://link.foreignpolicy.com/5253172ac16bcfa46f6bd4c721m23.1xxw/VH8TLUmO-Qg7YWJyAef18 style="font-weight:bold;color:#ea1414" target="blank">DNA</a>).  </p><br><p>  The Bhopal Gas tragedy, one of the world's worst industrial  disasters, occurred on Dec. 3, 1984, when approximately 40 metric tons of toxic  methyl isocyanate gas accidentally leaked from the Union Carbide Corporation, a  U.S.-owned pesticide factory. The leaked gas spread into the surrounding slums,  killing 2,000 people instantly, and injuring thousands more. According to  scientific studies, the factory has still not been entirely cleaned. While the  victims continue to demand compensation, the Dow Chemical Company (a U.S.-based  chemical corporation), which now owns Union Carbide, has denied further  liability, as it settled ?by paying $470 million to the Indian government in  1989.  </p><br><p>  <i>-- Neeli Shah</i>  </p><br><p>  <i>Edited by Peter Bergen</i>  </p><br> 

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